Gearing

[marcwilson1972]

Hi all.

Not sure if this has been asked before did do a quick search and came back no so hear goes.
Is any one running non standard gearing? If so what’s the pros and cons?
To be honest I think I am kind of happy with the standard ratio, only asking as my father had my bike out for a run the other day and commented. He is VVV experienced and bit of a demon even in his aging years bless him.
So just wandered what others were running.

Cheers guys.

[MartynRossi]

I run 1 tooth smaller on the front sprocket and it feels right to me as I wouldnt want first to be any higher, but to be honnest the smaller front sprocket was already on when I bought the bike so I cant give you a comparison.

[tonto sp1]

Hi mate, one of the first mods that I did on my sp1 was to swap the front sprocket from a 16T to a 15T. It makes a really big difference as many people say that 1st gear on the sp is way to tall.Makes the bike feel quite a bit nippier and It helps with the slow speed jerkyness as well .. You do lose a few mph from the top end and some people fit a speedo healer as the speedo will be out by a couple mph,although I havent bothered and not really had an issue with it ... You could instead swap the rear sprocket from 40t to a 42T and get the same effect but you may need a longer chain for this..All in all I would definately recommend it as a quick and easy cheap mod. ..

[marcwilson1972]

Cheers guys that kind of confirm what I was thinking.
Maybe a daft question but how does the one tooth off the front alter the acceleration, specifically low down, i.e. first gear from the lights etc? At the moment I can pin the throttle almost straight away and know it only lifts the front a little, so no need to back off and just click up though the box.

[tonto sp1]

Cheers guys that kind of confirm what I was thinking.
Maybe a daft question but how does the one tooth off the front alter the acceleration, specifically low down, i.e. first gear from the lights etc? At the moment I can pin the throttle almost straight away and know it only lifts the front a little, so no need to back off and just click up though the box.

It will accelerate quicker but you can still pin the throttle, it wont flip you over the back or anything like that,just gives the bike a bit more zip and it seems to pick up a lot better..hard to describe but definately feels better..

[marcwilson1972]

Cheers guys,

Think I'll get a new front sorted for next season to give it a go. Dont want to upset what I am used to when the roads are all yuck.

[steve p]

i preferd to fit a 42 tooth rear which in effect pulls the rear wheel forward a bit thus suposedly making it turn a bit quicker, not that i noticed there is a change in gearing but if you then fit a 55 profile rear tyre it brings the disparity back in line so your only a couple of % out.

[Sppete]

So here's the burning question.
How far does iether method put the speedo out?
I'll often strap my Garmin on the handle bars when I'm out for a spin and with std gearing the clocks read 86 when the garmin says 80. Anyone else ever checked on theirs?

Pete

[steve p]

try this link

http://www.healtech-electronics.com/

click on "speedohealer" then "online calculator" in the drop down menu, then on the page select "estimated" button then hit "go". you can now enter your tyre and sprocket sizes and it will tell you the %

[Oberon Kenobi]

The speedo thing is a bummer - because any inaccurate reading result in inaccurate total mileage reading - I'm running non standard gearing that came with the bike (so have no comparison to make but it can damn near chuck me off if I wang it open in first) and at first I thought I had a fuel efficient bike - then realised it was just in accurate by about 10%.

So not that it matters a huuuge amount but I am coming up to my 16k service but I suspect the bike has done a lot less than this.

Very unexciting info but worth bearing in mind!